The present invention relates to an attachment used in combination with a golf tee to support a golf ball.
Conventional woody or plastic tees from which golf balls are driven off typically comprise a generally inverted cone-shaped head and a leg extending downward from a lower end of the head so that the leg may be fixed into the ground and the golf ball may be placed on the head immediately before the golf ball is driven from the tee. The golf tee disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1992-189374 (hereinafter referred to as “Citation”) comprises a support column member destined to be fixed in the ground, a seat member adapted to be engaged with a top of the support column member and a plurality of supporting arms arranged along a circumference of the seat member and functioning as springs. According to the disclosure of Citation, this golf tee advantageously limits a total area over which the golf ball rests in contact with the supporting arms to upper ends of the respective supporting arms and thereby remarkably alleviates a contact resistance exerted by the golf tee upon the golf ball at the moment of driving off. Correspondingly, carry of the golf ball is improved.
In the case of the golf tee disclosed in Citation, the support column member is formed on an outer peripheral surface thereof with a groove extending in the circumferential direction and the seat member is formed on an inner peripheral surface thereof with a ridge extending in the circumferential direction. The support column member is integrated with the seat member by forcibly engaging the ridge with the groove. Consequentially, such seat member adapted to be combined with the support column member in this manner can not be used with the commercially available golf tees.